The Cougar football program is in a tough spot. With just three games left in the regular season, Pulaski County needs to put together as many wins as possible to improve their chances of making the Virginia High School League state playoffs with a favorable seeding. That task begins with a very tough Graham High School squad this week.
“They’ve had our number the past two seasons,” Cougar Head Coach Cam Akers said. “They’ve had a run of extremely talented athletes, and they are very well coached. Add depth to that, and you’ve got a combination that has earned them an undefeated season and State Championship last year and a state runner-up the year before. We can’t afford to make any mistakes in this one.”
Graham is led by Head Coach Tony Palmer, who is in his ninth season with the G-Men. His overall record is 92-17. After a 2015 season where he led Graham to a 6-6 record, he’s put together six seasons with 11 wins or more, a 13-win season, one season with 13 wins, and a 15-win run last year for the State Championship in Salem.
This season, the G-Men started things off with a close win over rival Bluefield, 14-9. They went on to take down Galax 42-13 on the road, then beat George Wythe 37-0 in Wytheville. Several injuries hampered the G-Men heading into their matchup with Union High School. That resulted in their only loss of the season to this point, 14-27 at Mitchell Stadium. Two weeks ago, Graham defeated Marion at home, 41-13. Last week, the G-Men took down Lebanon 59-14 in Bluefield.
“Graham scores points and they don’t allow opposing teams to do the same very often,” Coach Akers said. “They play a tough and physical brand of football. They do the basic little things right. With that said, we need to focus on playing our game and eliminating any mistakes we might make. Last week was great, but this isn’t going to be that kind of game.”
The Cougars earned their second win of the season last week, overpowering Blacksburg by a final score of 69-13. It was a record-breaking night for Pulaski County.
Running back Trevor Gallimore ran the ball 22 times for 357 yards, a new single game rushing record for the Cougars. He also scored six rushing touchdowns, another single game record for Pulaski County. His six touchdowns also tied Quasi Scott’s record from the 1998 season, where he scored five rushing and one receiving touchdown against Cave Spring. Even more incredibly, Gallimore did this all in one half of football. The Cougars pulled the starters from the game immediately at the start of the second half.
The 69 points the Cougars scored, 62 of those coming in the first half, were also enough to tie another record, this time for most points scored in a game. The last time Pulaski County scored that many points was in the 2001 season when they defeated William Byrd 69-20 on the road.
Aside from the six touchdowns by Gallimore, quarterback Bryant Nottingham added a touchdown at the end of the first half on an 11-yard run. Nottingham completed two passes to wideout Marcus Reed for exactly 100 yards, both for touchdowns in the second quarter. JV quarterback Brock Schneider raced 31-yards for the final score of the game.
“We’re going to face a lot more resistance this week,” Coach Akers said. “We need to bring our best.”
Game time Friday is set for 7 p.m. at Kenneth J. Dobson Stadium/Joel Hicks Field.